Monday, 7 March 2016

Two and a half million-plus page views, 3820 posts - but still declining...

This blog has now passed 2.5M page views over its lifespan. I have been actively, daily blogging since May 2010 - approaching 8 years - 3820 posts at an average of about 1.3 posts per day.

But despite the continual accumulation of posts, the monthly page views have been declining for two years; and the usual number of views per new post has gone down; and the rate of commenting has also gone down

So, this blog is dying in terms of its impact - and I suppose this is a fairly general trend in the blogosphere; but as yet I have no interest in participating in the 'social media' which are replacing blogging with briefer, and ever briefer (and less cognitively-demanding) stimuli.

As things are going, a blog like this is probably inferior in its value (including to myself) to some of the user groups which preceded blogging - at any rate my old sense of writing for an 'audience' has long since gone; and there may soon come a point when simply a personal web page would be better for what I want to do than the blog format.

I read this blog every day and it's one of the few refreshingly real places I know on the Internet. It always gives.me something worthwhile to ponder wrt spiritual matters even when at times I disagree with certain elements. I really wish there were more blogs like this. I hope you enjoy making the blog. If it becomes a chore then perhaps it is better to move onto pastures anew but the influence of what you have posted here of the last 8 years cannot be underestimated, for me it has been a welcome wake up call from the alienation and spiritual wilderness of western civilisation. I doubt I would have been a Christian today had I not discovered this blog a few years ago but as you well know, things happen for a reason and sometimes paths cross to enable us to grow in wisdom and learn from others.

I resonate with what everyone says above, especially David. The angles of vision this blog offers are unique, fresh, sometimes startling and always germane to the spiritual, creative and intellectual logjam Western civilisation seems currently stuck in. There's a vitality and vigour on view here - including the comments - which puts the conventional world of 'higher' education to shame. That's because your blog is, in many ways, scoping out the terrain for a world 'after the collapse' - imagining a new political, social and religious set-up which has not yet come into being, which is still being formed in the hearts and minds of a handful of 'watchers', but which will grow and take on shape and definition as the current dispensation begins to fray at the edges. This is the true meaning of 'avant-garde', in my view, and that's exactly where this blog's at.

Whether blog's have had their day is another question, of course. But in terms of the value of what's being explored here and especially the sincere, questing style - devoid of hatred and rancour - well, it's a shining light in the often dismal online milieu.

Don't think about the numbers, Bruce. 'Runs will come,' as our old cricket teacher used to say.

We could never make much of an impression on most people. You just have to hope you make an impression on people who matter. Then you've got to hope the people who matter are the sort of people who do internet searches that land them on your blog.

Social media may have replaced blogs for a vast majority, but in this case, I would just view it as a filter.Blogs still have their function and their audience especially for the dissident and erudite. I for one have found the popular mediums unusable because of use of my real name, algorithms that suggest me to people I know even if I use a pseudonym, and heavy censorship.You won't get the traffic you used to, but you probably won't notice any drop in quality.The casual surfers will be on twitter and facebook. You should also take e-mail subscriptions and apps into account. I often read your posts on feedly without actually visiting your site.

I find that search engines no longer take blogs seriously, and I understand since its a market both saturated and in decline. I'm finding word of mouth rather than search engines is the future of blogging. For my own blog, I've approached masters of larger blogs, written guest posts, and presented myself to people who run blogfeeds.I'm just a smalltime blogger, but a strategy of trying to adapt to change is the right approach I think.I once wrote a blog about the life of being a contemplative introvert in a loud and fast society, Kingdom of Introversion, and it got hundreds of hits a day with google doing all the work for me. Now I'm gradually learning what I have to do to find like minds and promote myself within specialized niches.

"... my old sense of writing for an 'audience' has long since gone; and there may soon come a point when simply a personal web page would be better for what I want to do than the blog format."

You say that your old sense of writing for an audience has gone. Do you mean that you don't sense that anybody is listening, or that your feeling for communicating with others has gone?

You want to do something, and you think a web page might suit your purposes better than a blog. Why is that?

I've read the comments and everybody who has commented finds value in your blog, and they wish you well. It might be a fruitful exercise to describe what you want to do, and then your friends who visit your blog can make comments as usual. It might lead to something new and good.

Bruce, I'm still checking in daily, even though I have been commenting less, and I find your stuff just as valuable as ever - original, creative, insightful. You continue to come up with angles I had never suspected, but which in retrospect are obvious.

One reason for fewer comments and visitors, I bet, is that as people get more and more familiar with your general take on things, they need to check in less often to keep up with the development of your thoughts.

Another reason: blogs in this end of the net have exploded in number. There is a lot more to keep track of these days, if you want to follow interesting reactionary bloggers.

Well I'm basically a communist, but this is the only blog I check every day, and I would probably keep regularly reading it for as long as it continued to be regularly updated, even if it was only out of sheer force of habit.

Your blog is an endless source of wisdom and understanding of reality. Your insights have been key in creating my own worldview, in having a coherent Christianity, in seeing the non-Christian and psychotic character of the modern Western world.

I have thought about downloading the entire blog because I have missed some years before I found it.

I am starting a project to fight against political correctness inside my Church and this blog has been a key resource.

Kristor said it best: "You continue to come up with angles I had never suspected, but which in retrospect are obvious."

After I give a presentation to the members of my Church and I tell them one of your insights, they always tell me that it's obvious and they have never thought that they were wrong since childhood. All kind of people (mostly non intellectuals) are learning your insights.

Not only do I read this blog but I continually cut and paste sections and often whole posts to print out and carry around and ponder at odd moments. (And force people to read....) For convenience I read from a blog aggregator (feedly) and I suspect that because of that, my reading doesn't count as a "page view". This could very well be the case for thousands of readers....

Bruce, I must chime in and echo comments from the above. Although I don't comment much I do drop by your blog a couple of times a week. When I don't it is usually because I am trying to stay away from forms of media in general, as was my general inclination and also influence from "Addicted to Distraction". Your blog has helped steer me back to the Christian path and has progressed me further along it; as well as being intellectually and emotionally stimulating in other areas of life. As said many times above, you have high quality -attention- here and it is having a positive -impact-. I have saved and forwarded on many of your words/thoughts. Thank you for writing and please continue to do so.

I'm late to the party but I too do go through your blog every week. I usually don't have much to add, I'm afraid, but it's always thought provoking and a pleasure to read. Not to mention when I get to hunt down some previously unknown writer or composer.

There's no harm in dipping your toe into social media - such as Facebook and Twitter. There's no need to do more than advertise each blog post.

Whenever a friend/follower on a social site likes/retweets one of your posts, that person's friends/followers receive a notification. This is a good way to spread ideas, because they not only reach a wider audience, they do so with a (minimal) endorsement from somebody that the viewer already knows.